Black Country Pathology Services delivers lab network ‘in adversity’
Black Country Pathology Services has pushed ahead with a major initiative to create a laboratory network to serve four trusts and delivered a successful go-live for its CliniSys | MIPS laboratory information system despite the coronavirus emergency.
BCPS was formed in response to a report by Lord Carter of Coles, which recommended that NHS laboratory services should be re-organised into a regional ‘hub and spoke’ model to improve quality and efficiency. It is developing a pathology network for four trusts: The Dudley Group, Sandwell and Birmingham, Walsall Healthcare, and The Royal Wolverhampton.
Staff were TUPE transferred into the new
In November 2018, it also took the decision to deploy CliniSys | MIPS WinPath Enterprise as a single LIMS to support communication and to
Group operational manager Graham Danks said the arrival of the novel coronavirus in early March threatened to “turn everything upside down”. But the
“Covid-19 had a huge impact on our workforce. Work linked to elective care stopped. A seven-day service came into play for Covid-testing. And work on the LIMS was put on hold,” Graham Danks explained. “We were in the middle of user acceptance testing for the second phase of the roll-out, and due to go-live in June.
“So, we decided to explore the art of the possible, so we could keep moving forward. Microbiology became the priority. We talked to CliniSys | MIPS and the message was that we were ‘all in this together’, and they were ready to help us complete UAT2 so we could go-live. And that is what we did.”
Black Country Pathology Services is aiming to contribute £5 million savings to the £200 million savings identified by the Carter Report. It is also looking to deliver a high quality, modern service from its showcase facilities at New Cross Hospital, which will handle microbiology, histopathology and
The pathology service chose WinPath Enterprise following a formal tender process; the first to be conducted after NHS England’ published a ‘state of the nation’ report on the creation of pathology networks, which showed it is on track to complete the
It opted to take WinPath Enterprise as a hosted solution and had deployed a wide area network to give its laboratories the fast links they needed to access the LIMS. It had also gone live in
In response to another recommendation from the National Screening Committee, NHS England is setting up a national system to make testing for Human Papilloma Virus the primary method of screening for the disease.
BCPS bid successfully to carry out the lab work for the service in its area, which made the deployment of WinPath Enterprise to
As it resumes ‘business as usual’, BCPS will complete the roll-out and deploy CliniSys | MIPS ICE to create an ‘end to end’ software system that is fully integrated with the electronic patient records used by hospital clinicians and GP practices.
Senior ICT
“As we return to something like business as usual, our priority will be to go-live fully with the LIMS, to go-live with ICE, and to complete the EPR integration. That will enable us to make full use of our investment in IT as we develop the network and plan for growth and expansion.”
Adam Clark, delivery director at CliniSys | MIPS said: “We were delighted to be able to support Graham, Nick and their teams during the Covid-19 emergency. A LIMS deployment is always a significant event, but it was particularly pleasing to be able to deliver a WinPath Enterprise go-live in such adverse circumstances, and in support of a service under pressure.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the BCPS team as they continue to deliver a
